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Chapter 2 (part 20)
9. Layer IX, the acropolis of the Roman city of Ilion (continued). (p.230)
From
the buildings of the IX layer, which were located outside the Athena -
district (p.231), the theaters B and C, the building IX B and IX A are
to be briefly described.
The theatre-like building B,
situated on the south-eastern slopes of the hill, is probably the
Buleuterion of Ilion. Its plan is found on Plate VII and in fig.93. The
middle part of the latter drawing is repeated on a larger scale in
fig.95.
 From fig.93 it can be seen that the seating area,
which covered a little more than a semicircle, was in a large
rectangular hall and was therefore certainly covered. Only the dark
hatched parts of the outer walls are actually exposed. The seats were
divided into 3 wedges by 4 radially directed stairs C D E F.
Fig.93: Plan of the Buleuiterion (Theater B)
Apart from
the lowest row of marble seats, only a few of the other benches (p.232)
made of porous material have survived. Figure 94 shows a section
through the lower 3 seats. The foundations, made of soft porous, are
quite light here, the upper rows of hard porous seats are dark, and the
bottom bench, made of marble, is hatched crosswise. The semicircular
orchestra, as figure 95 shows, had a multicolored marble floor, which
unfortunately was destroyed a few years ago by the inhabitants of the
surrounding villages. In the center stood a square altar G; only its
profiled lower stone is preserved, the altar itself is missing.
Fig.94: The lowest seats of the Buleuterion (Theater B).
A
skene wall decorated with columns and a logeion, such as are usual in
the skene theaters of Roman times, never existed in our building. In
their place we find a small podium H in the middle of the back wall,
which rises only 2 steps above the orchestra (compare the section in
fig.96). It is no longer possible to tell whether special armchairs
once stood on the upper step. On the other hand, we know that the
podium was surrounded by a barrier containing six very small columns on
the front side. The right corner piece of this barrier, which is the
only one preserved, is shared with (p.233) in a special drawing in
fig.97; a is a projecting pillar, which connects to the side barrier, b
is the corner column and c is the front barrier, which may be
supplemented up to a second column whose position has been preserved.
Between the 2nd and 3rd columns (cf. fig.95), and also between the 4th
and 5th, were two small doors d and e leading to the dais.
Fig.95: Floor plan of the central part of the Buleuterion (Theater B).
Access
to the building was provided by two large doors A and B, which were
attached to the back wall on either side of the podium. Not only the
marble thresholds have survived from both, but also several stones of
the frame and the cornices. Stepping through these doors one reached a
long hall, which I have supplemented in fig.93 as a columned hall
because of its broad outer wall. No trace has been found of any other
access. However, it is not impossible that there were one or more doors
in the outer walls next to the top row of seats.
Fig.96: Section through the back wall and podium of the Buleuterion (Theater B|.
Fig.97: Eastern part of the barrier in front of the podium.
The
current condition of the building can be seen in photo 31. In the
foreground is a wall made of porous limestone blocks with the two sills
of doors A and B and with a remnant of the podium H. Furthermore, one
notices the bottom bench made of marble (K to L) and above it on the
left edge some pieces of the upper rows of seats N and M made of porous
limestone and their foundations P. From the back wall built of soft
porous ashlars in two places (near R and S) see pieces. Behind the S
wall one notices at W a piece of the sloped castle wall of the VI layer
and at T the southern boundary wall of the Athena district, which was
also the rear wall of the southern Stoa. Of the remaining walls
appearing in the background, some of the VIIth layer walls consisting
of small stones are marked with U and a foundation of the IXth layer
with Z.
Photo 31: Theater B (Bouleterion ?) of Layer IX.
From
the ground plan it goes without saying that our building was no
ordinary skenic theater. One might doubt whether it must be taken for
an odeion or a bouleuterion. I give preference to the latter
explanation, on the one hand because the odeia in Roman times were
always designed like skenic theaters, and on the other hand because the
arrangement of our building bears a great resemblance to the
bouleuterion found in Priene.
I think I can assume the epoch of
the first emperors as the time of construction, because the deep
foundation walls are made of soft porous blocks, just like the
foundations of the eastern and southern stoa of the Athena district,
which belong to this period. A glance at Plate VII seems to me to indicate
that the agreement which exists in the direction between these
structures also speaks for their construction according to a large
unified plan. Then the production of the rich floor made of colored
marble fits very well into the first imperial period. (p.234) Finally, some
inscriptions relating to Augustus and Tiberius found in the Orchestra
(cf. Nos 65 and 69 of the index of Ilian inscriptions in Chapter VI) give a lower limit for the construction period: the Buleuterion must have been
erected, at the
latest, by the time of Augustus (30 BC-AD 17).
Plate 7: Plan of Layer IX at Troy, showing Roman structures in blue.
Theater
C, to the west, was only discovered in 1894, shortly before the end of
the excavations. It was no longer possible to uncover it, especially
since it is covered by large amounts of rubble. We had to confine
ourselves to finding out, through small excavations, where the building
was located and what shape it had. It is located on the southern slope
of the hill, parallel to the Buleuterion (Theater B) and jutting out
over the VI layer castle wall.
The orchestra, almost 10m wide,
forms an elevated semicircle and is surrounded by an approximately
1.30m high wall, on which the first rows of seats begin. Some of the
latter, made of large blocks of porosity, are still preserved. The
orchestra is therefore a deepened arena or konistra and thus has a form
that occurs in many theaters in Asia Minor. A stage and a skene
building did exist, but seem to have survived only in their
foundations. The small part that has been excavated does not allow a
judgment on their exact shape. Only so much is certain that the
building was a small skenic theater built in Roman times. The use of
lime mortar on its walls leaves no doubt as to its Roman origin.
Of
the other buildings of the IX level, which are found outside the Athena
district, I also mention the building IX B in the squares E 7 to E 8
and the large building IX A in A 5 to B 6. Of both there are only the
foundations preserved, which in the former consist of soft porous
ashlars, in the latter of larger irregular stones of various kinds.
Among these stones were pieces of the older Poros entablature which we
have illustrated on p. 210 above. As a result of the extensive
destruction, the purpose of the two buildings can no longer be
determined. This is particularly unfortunate because we cannot even
determine what types of buildings occupied the western half of the
Acropolis at the time of layer IX. Judging by the floor plan and the
type of construction, we can only say that they were probably public
buildings, not residential buildings.
[Continue to Chapter 2, part 21]
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